


How Stories End

by saellys



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Framing Story, Gen, JUST, Parenting Feels, Poe Is All of Us, Really damn sad, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 12:11:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8890294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saellys/pseuds/saellys
Summary: Eventually, every parent has to break their kid’s heart. Better now, like this, than… well. Poe is a dreamer, and Shara needs him to understand, sooner than later, that glory is hard to come by in war. But when his tears well over, she regrets ever asking if he wanted to hear the story of how Rogue Squadron got their name.





	

**Author's Note:**

> As soon as I found out who survives Rogue One, I wanted a framing story a la The Fall. (ienablu pointed out that it ended up more like The Princess Bride.) When I realized who should be telling it, I had to go take a walk and calm down. 
> 
> Many thanks to ienablu for betaing; sorry for driving you to drink with the sads.

In the kitchen, with the multiprocessor on powder mode to cover their voices, Kes says, “You really going through with this?” 

Shara dries three mugs and glances through the doorway to where Poe plays in the living area. “He won’t let me get away with not finishing it.” 

“Make ten men feel like a hundred,” Poe advises the miniatures arrayed before him. Shara’s favorite vase stands in for a communications tower. 

“And after you finish it?” Kes says, warming the milk. “Maybe start right up with the Bothans.” 

“Two minutes, buddy,” Shara calls into the next room, and Poe _nyoom_ s an X-wing in answer. “He wants war stories,” she says to Kes. 

“He wants _your_ war stories.”

Shara gives him the mugs and goes to turn down the covers in her son’s room. Three minutes later Poe is there, tucked in, tousled, safe and bright-eyed with a mug of hot chocolate in his hands. “Where were we?” Shara asks him. 

“Admiral Raddus scrambled the fleet!” 

“That’s right. The Alliance arrived in full force and immediately deployed Red Squadron. A handful of the X-wings made it through the shield gate before it closed, and the rest commenced their strafing runs while Star Destroyers engaged the _Profundity_. Meanwhile, on Scarif’s surface--”

“Did Bodhi make it?” 

Shara takes a drink. Kes spiked her mug with liquor the colonists brew from the local fauna, sharp and strong. “Bodhi patched into the comms tower. He got back to the shuttle under heavy fire and made contact with Admiral Raddus. He told the fleet to bring the shield down so they could receive Erso’s transmission. Then they lost contact.” 

Poe’s triumphant smile fades. “What?” 

“The X-wing pilots reported a thermal detonator signature.” _Kriff, Bey, that’s clinical._ “They think that’s what happened to Rogue One.” 

Her son’s brow is furrowed, his mug forgotten. “What about Chirrut and Baze?” 

Shara drops her gaze. “A few ground troops made it back on a U-wing after the shield went down. They said that when Chirrut threw the master switch, the troopers destroyed the terminal. Chirrut died in the blast. A grenade took Baze a few minutes later.” 

She looks back up and sees a familiar set to Poe’s jaw. “K-2SO?” he says, voice soft. 

“There's no way to know for sure what happened inside the tower,” Shara tells him. “Kay’s commlink stopped transmitting. Above Scarif, the Death Star dropped out of hyperspace and prepared to fire.” 

“You’re telling it wrong,” Poe says flatly. 

“I’m telling you the truth.” 

But he shakes his head. “Uh-uh. That’s not what’s supposed to happen. Kay got back to the ship with Chirrut and Baze, and Bodhi flew them out. They all got out and came back to Yavin and got medals. They got the Bronze Nova, like you.” 

Shara holds his gaze, and Poe juts his chin again.

“Jyn and Cassian got out,” he declares. Certainty: the luxury of children.

“Jyn and Cassian made it to the top of the communications tower, and transmitted the plans to _Profundity_. The Death Star fired on Scarif shortly after that.” She shouldn’t have spent so much time, early in the story, building them up. But then, she only told him what she’d heard, and how do you undersell a galactic hero? She didn't say Cassian was dashing, but Poe asked, and Shara had to admit that by all accounts he was. “There was no time to retrieve them,” she tells Poe. 

Eventually, every parent has to break their kid’s heart. Better now, like this, than… well. Poe is a dreamer, and Shara needs him to understand, sooner than later, that glory is hard to come by in war. But when his tears well over and he starts to sniffle, she regrets ever asking if he wanted to hear the story of how Rogue Squadron got their name. 

“You’re telling it wrong,” he whimpers. 

“A _Profundity_ officer made a hard copy of the plans and delivered them to _Tantive IV_ ,” she goes on. She skips the part where Vader slaughtered dozens of Alliance soldiers--she has provided enough nightmare fuel for one night. “You know what happened after that, Poe?” 

“Princess Leia,” he says, still sniffling. 

Shara gives him a smile. “Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and a hundred million tiny pieces of Death Star glittering in the sky over Yavin IV. If the Rogue One team hadn’t gone to Scarif and given everything they had, this little moon wouldn’t even be here, buddy. When people fight for something they believe in, they fight to the end, and most of the time they don’t get medals for it. Sometimes they don’t even get stories about them. But now you know theirs, and you get to carry it.” 

For a second he draws himself up straighter, and then Poe’s expression crumbles again. Shara sets down her mug and then his, and pulls him into her arms. Over his shaking shoulders, she sees Kes watching from the doorway, his face tired. 

Poe sobs for a while, and finally lets out a shaky sigh, and Shara holds him a little longer before she leans back to look at his face. His expression is sad but no longer distraught, sleepy but peaceful. She eases him back under the covers and kisses his forehead. “I love you,” she tells him.

“Don’t go tomorrow,” Poe murmurs.

Shara looks into her son’s eyes for a long time. “I have to,” she says.

After a moment he nods, and then leans up to put his arms around her neck once more. “I love you, too.” He kisses her cheek and lays down, and Shara tucks the covers back around him and turns out the glowlamp. 

In the hall Kes takes her hand. He doesn’t ask her not to go. They came to an agreement, before they ever tried to have a child, and part of it was that they would never try to talk each other out of duty. If Shara doesn’t come back, Kes and Poe are… not ready, never ready, but at least prepared. 

As she waits for sleep, Shara hopes she is, too. 


End file.
